seta = modified FlowMotion 2.02 with high datarate for both 1080p 24p and 720p 60p, gop3 for 1080p 24p and default Panasonic gops for other modes, long gop for 720p is more stable than short gops. avoids the diagonal pattern (rain) noise in 1080p 24p, the other modes needs transcoding with 5DtoRGB free software before editing to avoid the diagonal pattern (rain) noise in dark low light. (best choice, workhorse)

setb = modified FlowMotion 2.02 with high datarate for 1080p 24p and mid datarate for 720p 60p, gop3 for 1080p 24p and default Panasonic gops for other modes, long gop for 720p is more stable than short gops. avoids the diagonal pattern (rain) noise in 1080p 24p, the other modes needs transcoding with 5DtoRGB free software before editing to avoid the diagonal pattern (rain) noise in dark low light. (for low speed cards)

setc = modified FlowMotion 2.02 with mid datarate for both 1080p 24p and 720p 60p, gop3 for 1080p 24p and default Panasonic gops for other modes, long gop for 720p is more stable than short gops. avoids the diagonal pattern (rain) noise in 1080p 24p, the other modes needs transcoding with 5DtoRGB free software before editing to avoid the diagonal pattern (rain) noise in dark low light. (for low speed cards)

setd = modified FlowMotion 2.02 with high datarate for both 1080p 24p and 720p 60p, gop3 for 1080p 24p and gop9 for other modes, avoids the diagonal pattern (rain) noise in 1080p 24p, the other modes needs transcoding with 5DtoRGB free software before editing to avoid the diagonal pattern (rain) noise, more noticeable than in the previous patches in this list. (highest quality for 720p)

sete = conservative settings with just datarate and gop changing, high datarate for 1080p 24p and mid datarate for 720p 60p, gop3 for 1080p 24p and default Panasonic gops for other modes, avoids the diagonal pattern (rain) noise in all modes.

setf = conservative settings with just datarate and gop changing, mid datarate for both 1080p 24p and 720p 60p, gop3 for 1080p 24p and default Panasonic gops for other modes, avoids the diagonal pattern (rain) noise in all modes. (for low speed cards)

the seta, setb and setc are based on FlowMotion 2.02 The quantization, tables and matrices implemented by LPowell in FM202 are great quality, avoids macroblocking, keeps homogene texture in the image, a constant noise perceiving. This makes both 1080p and 720p pretty usable in iso 6400 and cleans ok with NeatVideo. With a small amount of film grain you cannot tell it was shoot in 6400 iso. they are also very stable.

These three patches uses gop3 for 1080p 24p because it is stable and great quality. The gop for other modes are the default Panasonic settings. I perceived that a long gop for 720p is much more stable, I can record without stop problems even at the end of the card when it shows only 1 minute time left. The long gop does not introduce macroblocking and noise texture is homogene. The datarate is very well distributed among the I, B and P frames. the P frames do a great job to keep the quality, they are biger than B frames in streamparser view.

The seta is my choice for now. setb just have a smaller 720p datarate and setc have a 1080p and 720p smaller datarate when both are compared to seta. The setb and setc are for people with low speed cards.

The setd is also based on FM202. it also uses gop3 for 1080p 24p. the difference is it uses gop9 for the other modes increasing the datarate and quality. gop9 is the shortest stable gop I found for 720p, gop3 and gop6 always stop recording. so this is for people who wants the best 720p quality. but to my eyes it does not do a significant difference to worth using it to increase 720p quality. the seta is good enough. compare both to perceive yourself. and i believe the seta will be more stable due to the long gop in 720p.

All the seta, setb, setc and setd shows diagonal pattern (rain) in 720p mode. in setd I perceived that it is more noticeable. in seta, setb and setc I saw it in dark low light only. But transcoding the footage in 5Dto RGB free software solves the problem and the converted files are free of the diagonal pattern (rain). This "no free lunch" issue in these versions is a price to pay for the high quality in 720p, a little more work time in post for transcoding the files. If someone is interested in do some attempts to tweak the versions to completely avoid the diagonal pattern (rain) it would be amazing. as I said, i perceived it more noticeable in dark low light shoots at iso 6400 in 720p 60p. the 1080p 24p seems to be clean.

The sete and setf does not use FM202. they are just a datarate increase and the 1080p 24p is set to gop3 because it is great quality and very stable. all other modes uses default panasonic gop for better stability because long gops are more stable for the other modes. these versions are for people who wants a hack that does not change anything but just change datarate and 1080p 24p gop. the datarate was tweaked carefuly to be very stable in all modes. for 720p SH works good in high speed cards, use H in low speed cards. the quality of 720p is good but shows some macroblocking in the dark areas, deep shadows. this is because these versions does not have custom quantization, matrices or tables. the only diference between sete and setf is the 1080p 24p datarate, it is higher in sete, so setf is for low speed cards. the advantage of these versions is that I did not see any diagonal pattern (rain) yet, even in dark low light in all modes, so it does not need 5DtoRGB tanscoding before play/edit. if this is important for you these versions are the best.

The Flowmotion 2.02 patch is very nice and has a good balance of bitrate, quality and stability. I have my own modified version of Flowmotion on all 3 of my GH2's, but if I didn't have my own version I would gladly try yours. Anyway's thanks for sharing your modified Flowmotion patch with the rest of us.

Just a quick look at this suggests to me setA will fail death chart test for 720p60. Do a search for Stray's colour death chart and then record 60p on it handheld for more than 10 seconds (make sure you have perfect exposure/ISO/60 shutter etc). If it doesnt stop youre good to go. If it stops it will fail in the field.

thanks for pointing me to the charts. here is the new versions tweaked to record the charts without stop recording. after the tweaks seta and setb turned into the same, so there is no seta, use setb instead, the new workhorse.

I did new tests with the new setb uploaded in previous post. It is just amazing!

I did shoots of the four Stray's colour death charts with all modes (ntsc): 24H, 24L, SH, H, FSH, FH, HBR. all modes can record the four charts for more than 10 seconds in 6400 iso which is difficult for the patches to handle. two shots was done in each mode, with the camera steady and with camera movements, pan, rotation with auto focus enabled. No stop recording.

The image quality is pretty good, without macroblocking, homogene noise, good texture. For high speed cards use the 24H, SH, FSH, for low speed cards use 24L, H, FH. I believe the HBR will work for all cards. (if your card is very slow use the setc uploaded in the prevous post, same thing of setb but lower datarate for 24H and 24L).

There is the diagonal pattern (rain) when playback or edit in computer, but I did transcoding with 5DtoRGB free software and the converted files are clean. So I just converted them to apple prores LT and files are fine to edit.

Most of the files I can play inside the camera.

This new setb is my workhorse from now. It is a modified FlowMotion 2.02. Here it is alone: